The successes and failures of your average girl trying to make a vegan life for herself.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Vegan Parmesan

Last night for dinner my boyfriend and I tried out Parmela vegan Parmesan-style cheese. Fun fact: it's Parmesan-style because any cheese that doesn't come from the Parma region of Italy isn't really Parmesan - kind of like Champagne. Plus, this isn't even cheese at all :)

He was definitely a lot more skeptical than I was, but fortunately both of us were pleasantly surprised. As you might be able to read in this blurry picture, the Parmela advertises that it uses "aged nuts" to achieve that sharp cheese flavor you get from real Parmesan.

When you open up the container it's a lot darker than you would expect Parmesan to be, but it's definitely got that sharp scent and it seems to have the texture down as well.

We sprinkled ours on top of some basic pasta with sauce from Whole Foods. I didn't use much because we were both wary, so the flavor didn't pack as much punch as we might have liked, but it was definitely discernible.

At $6.50 plus shipping for two containers of Parmesan (it was about $11 total from Vegan Cuts), it was even a pretty good price considering what real Parmesan might cost you. Next challenge ... pesto!